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Updated: Mar 3, 2026
Rearing the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster Under Axenic and Gnotobiotic Conditions
Published on: July 30, 2016
Conditionally Pathogenic Gut Microbes Promote Larval Growth by Increasing Redox-Dependent Fat Storage in High-Sugar
Tae Woong Whon1, Na-Ri Shin1, Mi-Ja Jung1
1Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University , Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Aims:
Changes in the composition of the gut microbiota contribute to the development of obesity and subsequent complications that are associated with metabolic syndrome. However, the role of increased numbers of certain bacterial species during the progress of obesity and factor(s) controlling the community structure of gut microbiota remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate the inter-relationship between Drosophila melanogaster and their resident gut microbiota under chronic high-sugar diet (HSD) conditions.
Results:
Chronic feeding of an HSD to Drosophila resulted in a predominance of resident uracil-secreting bacteria in the gut. Axenic insects mono-associated with uracil-secreting bacteria or supplemented with uracil under HSD conditions promoted larval development. Redox signaling induced by bacterial uracil promoted larval growth by regulating sugar and lipid metabolism via activation of p38a mitogen-activated protein kinase.
Innovation:
The present study identified a new redox-dependent mechanism by which uracil-secreting bacteria (previously regarded as opportunistic pathobionts) protect the host from metabolic perturbation under chronic HSD conditions.
Conclusion:
These results illustrate how Drosophila and gut microbes form a symbiotic relationship under stress conditions, and changes in the gut microbiota play an important role in alleviating deleterious diet-derived effects such as hyperglycemia. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 27, 1361-1380.
